Camp Jeep - August, 1997
Written by Al Bsharah
If you're using Netscape, you may have to wait before it will display everything. I have no idea why...Internet Explorer works fine. Sorry...

There are a TON of pictures here, so I've made them all pretty small. You can click on them and a NEW window will pop up and you'll get the full sized version. Just close that window when you're done viewing it and you'll be back at my page ready to look at the next one!

The plan was this: Drive cross country, Detroit to Colorado. Three guys. My Jeep. The result: It worked!

Here are the three clowns who made the trip (left to right): Lou Bellanca, Frank Canonico and myself made the 24-hour one-way drive. That's a LONG way for three guys in a YJ...with our luggage and tools and cooler!

We found her just outside of Chicago. Got her to pull over with our excessively magnetic charm (actually it was a pack of smokes that did it...)

This shows the incredibly roomy and comfortable rear seat of a Wrangler when it's loaded with luggage and a cooler. That's me on my off-shift. Hey Frank, wherever you are right now, I want my Bubba's hat back!

At Camp Jeep, there are numerous things that can be done. One of which is bug the Jeep engineers (of which, I am one.) This picture shows me and my boss at the time, Ben DiCicco using a diagnostic tool.

Other stuff to do besides the off-roading (patience, my friend) include taking out a mountain bike, rock climbing, and archery (see Lou here).

Mountain Boarding was also a feature this year. As well, for a price, you could go white water rafting! There is TONS to do for kids (free) if you have a family. But I don't. So you're not getting any pictures!

And now the good stuff begins. Jeep 101 is a man-made course with rocks, hills, logs, water, etc. Anyone at Camp Jeep can take a TJ, XJ or ZJ (Camp Jeep Owned!) on this course. Basically, it's to introduce the novice as to the rules of the off-road...

The Holy Cross Trail. One of the tougher ones out that way (that we found, anyway..) This is Phil flexing out his 33's and all-around ARB's.

This was a small rock climb that had a large rut to your right. That rut caused a few people to get dangerously close to that tree...

As you can see here, Phil had been workin' his Jeep hard all day, so it got a bit worn out and decided to take a break up against the tree.

We found an 81 Scrambler to go with us (Brian and Tammy). Nice shape vehicle, too! They ended up helping Mr. Orange Crush out (see next pic) when he ran into some trouble.

Orange Crush. Well, that's what I called it anyway. Why? Well, he ended up crushing one of his front shackle mounts right off the frame! The rock he did it on is shown on the next picture...he did it on the way up.

I'm climbing down the rock Orange Crush got busted on. The Scrambler ended up swapping shackles with him so he could get back down. The rest of us kept going.

This is what happens when you try to take an Isuzu Amigo off-roading. You get stuck. You get wenched. We wait. Jeep. There's only one.

Some Jeeps got shipped out for "engineering purposes." Luckily, being Jeep Engineers, we get to try some of these out! Here's a Stock TJ doing it's thing! Let me tell ya, it hung pretty well with the big boys!

Near the top of the Holy Cross Trail is the old mining town of The Holy Cross. Apparently from somewhere along the trail, you can see a huge natural cross in the side of the mountain. We missed it, but made it to the town where only two buildings were still standing. Also saw the HUGE hole that was left from the mining.

McAllister trail takes you up from about 9000 feet to 12,700 feet in probably under a half-hour. It's STEEP. ALL the way up. The view at the end it quite incredible though. Here's me just goofing around on a rock..we almost tipped over on top of a deer that happened to walk by!

Same picture, reverse angle. I climbed up a bit high on this, and we begin to roll. So, everyone started leaning hard left and I got it in reverse to level her out a bit.

The views of McAllister are phenominal. I'll let the pictures talk for themselves.

Iron Mike Trail. The end of it. The trail wasn't that big of a deal, and it ended in this valley. Didn't take any worthy trail shots, but the valley looks cool (with my Jeep in it, anyway!)